


take it all, with my love

by Hollstein1698



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, post season zero
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2015-12-13
Packaged: 2018-05-06 13:42:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5419229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hollstein1698/pseuds/Hollstein1698
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hollstein share a moment or two after they finish watching the VHS tapes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	take it all, with my love

**Author's Note:**

> For a friend, who demanded library fluff.   
> Title from Adele's "Take it All."

Curious and hyperactive as Laura Hollis was, the sight of a nine tailed fox was more than enough to get her attention. Before Laura could take more than a few steps in the fox spirit's direction, however, she felt a hand land on her shoulder, stopping her forward progress out into the forest. 

"You don't want to be doing that, cupcake."

"Carmilla, come on. I thought you wanted to get out of the library," Laura whispered without taking her eyes off the fox, scared it might disappear if she looked away. 

"Yes, but we should go back for Laf. And besides, you don't want to mess around with a fox spirit. Trust me."

With a final longing look at the fox, Laura huffed and turned around, almost walking into Carmilla. Carmilla quickly shuffled out of Laura's way, and Laura tried not to turn too red at the sudden contact. They both walked back inside the opening to the library, resolutely avoiding eye contact. 

+++

"We can't leave just yet," Laf muttered distractedly, hardly even paying any mind to Laura and Carmilla's news of an opening out of the library. "I'm not done."

"Done? Done with that what, Ginger Two?" Carmilla snapped. 

Laf didn't even register Carmilla's less than friendly tone. "I need some more time."

"That opening might not be there for very long, Frankenstein. I don't fancy being stuck here for any longer than we have been already."

"You go, then."

"Laf..." Laura tried, uncertainly. 

"Laura, you can go with Her Snarkiness if you want, I don't care," Laf said shortly. "But I'm staying."

Laura shot Carmilla an expectant look. Carmilla met her gaze, and despite the look of utter annoyance on her face, she sighed and rolled her eyes. "One more day," Carmilla ground out through clenched teeth, before spinning on her heel and wandering off through the maze of bookshelves. 

Laura looked after her for another moment before she returned her attention to Laf. "Is that enough time, Laf?"

They nodded, their attention still resolutely focused on the huge tome in front of them. Laura gave their shoulder a squeeze before she went off to find Carmilla. 

The space around her seemed to be part library and part forest. Vines twisted along the floor and walls and protruded from bookshelves. Laura passed a whole tree trunk at some point. Despite everything Laura had seen in the last year, she couldn't help but be a little creeped out by her surroundings. It felt like something out of a Game of Thrones novel. 

"Come to try and persuade me to stay longer?" 

Laura, startled, craned her neck around the nearest bookshelf and saw Carmilla sitting down and leaning against a different row of shelves, book already in hand, but gaze turned on Laura. The corners of her mouth were turned downward slightly. She looked like the panther she was, her muscles tense, coiled, like she was preparing herself for a fight. Maybe all that time spent holed up together watching those vhs tapes had taken some kind of toll on her.

But Laura was tired, worn out, spent. Drained emotionally and physically. She wasn't here to push Carmilla to do anything she didn't want to do. Laura had come too far, and learned too much-- had lost too much-- to think that she should strong arm Carmilla into doing anything at all. 

"No," Laura answered finally, and she sat down opposite her ex-girlfriend. "No, Carm. You can leave whenever you want."

The tension visibly left Carmilla's body, but she eyed Laura warily. "What are you talking about, cupcake?"

Laura took a steadying breath, deciding that she might as well get this out of her system. She didn't want to fight, but she didn't want to be left wondering either. "I'm saying that if you… Don't want to live with the reminder anymore, you can go. You don't have to stay here babysitting us, if you don't want to." 

Carmilla's eyes widened for a moment before she discarded her novel, staring at Laura with an unreadable expression. Laura said nothing, simply waiting for a response. She didn't _want_ Carmilla to go, but finally, she had realized that maybe there was nothing left here for Carmilla. And maybe Carmilla owed it to herself to find happiness somewhere else. 

"Laura," Carmilla said finally, "What inane crap are you going on about?"

_That_ was not the reaction Laura was expecting. "What?"

"Are you trying to get rid of me, creampuff?"

"Well, no," Laura stammered. 

"Okay, then." Carmilla resumed her earlier position, retrieving her novel. 

"Carm," Laura said, "I just mean, if you wanted to go and--"

"I don't," Carmilla answered shortly. "I assumed that by now, you would have realized that I'm going to see this mess through with you."

"I--"

"Against, perhaps, some of my better judgment, I'm not going anywhere, Laura. Not unless you want me to." Carmilla fixed Laura with a piercing look over the top of her book. "Do you want me to?"

"No," Laura whispered, averting her eyes from Carmilla's. "No, I don't."

Carmilla hummed, then raised her book to eye level. Laura took that to mean that this discussion was over. Deciding to let this one be, Laura got up, intending to try and get some sleep. She suddenly felt very exhausted. 

"Try to get Frankenstein to understand that it's time we get out of here. There isn't anything in those books that's going to help them right now."

Laura turned around again. 

Carmilla was frowning over at her. "Just because I'm sticking around, doesn't mean I want to be stuck in this acid trip of a library for any longer than necessary."

Laura nodded, and Carmilla returned the gesture. She looked down at her book again before adding, "Get some sleep, cupcake."

+++

Sleep was hard. Laura didn't think she managed to sleep for more than an hour, at most, before her eyes were snapping open. She blinked furiously, trying to rid herself of the lingering images of her dream. Vordenburg triumphant. Carmilla's head rolling along the expensive carpet. Laura blinked harder. 

"Laura?"

Carmilla's voice felt warm, safe. Alive. _Alive, alive_. 

Laura turned onto her other side. Carmilla was sitting near her, back to a wall, a cup of blood in one hand and a book in the other. She was looking at Laura with eyes softer than Laura had seen them since the night she had broken down in Carmilla's arms. 

"Was I--" Laura cut herself off to clear her throat, her voice hoarse with sleep. "I'm sorry if I--"

"You were saying my name," Carmilla admitted with a shy downturn glance. 

"Nightmare," Laura blurted out. 

Carmilla smiled wryly. "Gee, thanks, cupcake."

"No, I," Laura sat up, pulling the brown, soft blanket around herself tighter. "That's not what I meant."

Carmilla said nothing, studying Laura's face for a moment before she moved along the wall, making space for Laura. She dipped her chin to the side, motioning for Laura to sit beside her. Laura considered the cons for all of a second before her emotions got the better of her. She shuffled over to Carmilla's side, and Carmilla discarded her cup to bring a hesitant arm around Laura's shoulders. Laura didn't even bother pretending like it was an unwelcome feeling; she burrowed herself deep into the crook of Carmilla's neck, breathing in her scent and letting it calm her still rapidly beating heart. 

They were silent for some time. Laura tried to find sleep again, but it still would not come. Carmilla's attention was seemingly on her book, but Laura noticed after a while that Carmilla had yet to turn a page. 

Laura maneuvered herself so that she was resting against Carmilla's shoulder, tilting her head up so she could look at her. Carmilla eyed her back. "Something on my face?"

"No."

They studied each other quietly before Laura reached up and nervously placed a soft kiss to Carmilla's cheek. Carmilla's eyes fluttered shut, and Laura swore she heard a slight intake of breath. 

When Laura pulled away, Carmilla was looking at her with that intense stare again, like she was fighting something in herself. It reminded Laura of how she looked the last time they had kissed. 

"What was that for, cupcake?" Carmilla asked, her tone only wavering a little. 

"For staying. For staying even though I've hurt you."

Carmilla exhaled, the sadness in her eyes tugging at Laura's heartstrings and renewing the heavy guilt she'd been feeling ever since Mattie's death. 

Carmilla shook her head a little and brought a hand up to stroke Laura's cheek with her thumb. "We've already talked about this."

"I know." Laura tilted her head against Carmilla's hand and closed her eyes. "But I'm still sorry anyway."

"I know you are, Laura." 

Carmilla leaned forward so that their foreheads were touching, and Laura gripped the hand Carmilla still had on her cheek. She took a steadying breath before saying, "I know that saying this isn't very fair, considering everything I've done, but... I remember a certain vampire saying 'who the hell cares about fair.’"

Carmilla chuckled low in her throat at that, her thumb still making slow circles against Laura's skin. "Certainly not me," she said. 

"Well, in that case..." Laura closed her eyes. She thought about Carmilla on her knees in front of Vordenburg, she thought about a world where Carmilla wasn't alive to annoy her or to love her. She thought about how careless she had been with that love, and she vowed to herself to never be that careless again. "I love you, Carm," Laura admitted, finally. 

"Oh, Laura," Carmilla whispered, and Laura didn't think she'd ever heard her name uttered in such a way before, like a prayer, like a lifeline. 

Carmilla closed the small gap between them to kiss Laura deeply. 

The last time they kissed like this, it had tasted like desperation, like an apocalypse just waiting to destroy them. But as Carmilla brought her free hand up to cradle the back of Laura's neck, bringing her in even closer, Laura couldn't help but think that this one tasted a lot like forgiveness. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think, either here or [on Tumblr.](http://hollstein1698.tumblr.com/)


End file.
